Mar 19, 2012

BOOKS READ 2011

1. The Complete Poems 1927-1979- Elizabeth Bishop

Didn't I read somewhere in the recent past that EB was recognized by some committee somewhere in America to be the most important artist of the 20th Century? And by "artist" they meant The Whole Art: painting, writing, sculpture, movies et al. Am I making this up, misprision? This is that big pink book, I read this on my lunch break in my car. I hated this book. It wouldn't end. If there is one thing I really regret about college it's all the "complete works" books that I was forced to purchase (and now read). A lot of lounging around Brazil commenting on the indigent...The Fish is still a fun poem, "...coarse white flesh/ packed like feathers" is a fascinatingly disgusting image in the key of knee surgery or David Cronenberg. Kevin Killian recently participated in some kind of art show based on the work of Elizabeth Bishop (I missed it because my Gmail calendar was acting the Luddite), I wrote him at the time that I was having a hard time slogging through the Complete Poems, he didn't write me back.

2. There Are People Who Think That Painters Shouldn’t Talk A Guston Book- Patrick James Dunagan

I was walking down to Amber (now The Residence) with my brother (maybe), spotted Dunagan at the Church and Duboce MUNI tracks, was like "eeeeh yoooo..." and Patrick was all "oh, heeeey, man..." and then we bear hugged and vigorously shook hands (Dunagan has this great thing where his whole face lights up with smiles, his face turning beet-red)...I said "hey congrats on your book!" and he goes "what do you mean?" and I'm like "the Post-Apollo book...Lindsey told me they're going to do it..." and Dunagan is all "oh really? I haven't heard that...oh shit, seriously?" and I'm like "yeah that's kind of weird...no one told you?!" and he's like "I haven't heard anything...I mean, I gave them something to look at..." and I'm all "yeah dude, it's a done deal, they're doing the book...congrats" and he goes "awesome, but just in case it's not a done deal, I'm not going to get too excited..." and me "get excited, your book is a GO" and him "okay, I'm excited, but cautiously..." and me "ok..." and him "ok..."...

3. The Grand Piano Part 10

Brent Cunningham has a new book on Atelos called Journey To The Sun. I highly recommend it.

4. Area Sneaks #2

Joseph Mosconi and I spent a week together in Greece. We shared a room. I was in a miserable state. Mosconi spent a week listening to me vent about girls and relationships and fuckery...Mosconi even took walks with me through old Greek graveyards like a real mensch. Mosconi and I drank a lot of coffee together and I drank a lot of beer by myself. I swam in the Mediterranean a lot and didn't eat very much. Susan Gevirtz and Steve Dickison were also there, and along with Mosconi they handled my funk with compassionate aplomb. God I was such a bummer that summer. Here's a photo of Gevirtz, Me and Mosconi (photo by Dickison) on Paros (right before my backpack was swept out to sea only to be found the next morning by Thanasis Maskaleris during his morning swim, contents of backpack, destroyed...).

5. Temblor #4

Temblor is growing on me, sort of. Steve Dickison mentioned something about Temblor during my and Anna Moschovakis's Open Workshop at SFSU. About how the magazine was great because of how inclusive it was, lot's of different schools, lot's of personalities. I had to check myself, I'd never looked at Temblor that way, it had always seemed so safe in the kind of experimental literature it showcased (thus, really predictable and boring). So I'm trying to pay a more historical kind of attention while reading, hopefully it'll liven up the experience, cause I own, and am obligated to read, all 10 issues.

6. The Daily Mirror- David Lehman

I once wrote a pretty terrible book called Quotidian. I once titled a pretty terrible book a pretty terrible title, "Quotidian." I can't remember if it was David Lehman or Bernadette Mayer who inspired me to write this terrible book. I'm pretty sure it was Mayer's 3:15 Experiment (a book I wanted to like a lot more than I did when I got around to reading it), though it could have been The Daily Mirror. That being said, The Daily Mirror was better than The Last Avante-Garde, but maybe equally horribly titled. Currently listening to !!! Louden Up Now.

7. Tract- Jon Leon

Jon used to edit a magazine called Wherever We Put Our Hats. I believe we traded a copy of BOTH BOTH for a copy of WWPOH back in the day. I was living in Boulder while Jon was living in SF. When I moved back to SF Jon moved to Georgia (maybe). I think Tract is from the first Dusie Kollectiv, of which I was also a participant. I don't think this is the book with the extremely-large-though-natural-looking-breasts-70s-porn woman on the cover. I believe Jon runs a marketing company for chapbook presses. Somebody recently mentioned Jon's name while formulating ideas around the "Boyesque." I should say that I like Jon's writing a lot. Last I heard Jon was working in the fashion industry in New York City.

8. Combo #6

Tod McCarty never aired my King Lear vs. Boom Bip mix on KGNU 88.5FM.

9. Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy And Its Consequences- John Allen Paulos

I think I borrowed this book from my Dad in the 80s. There are roughly 5 billion people living today, every person has around 1 gallon of blood (women and children less), (5 x 10 to the 9th) = 5 billion gallons of blood. 7.5 gallons per cubic foot, so we get 6.7 x 10 to the 8th cubic feet of blood. The cube root of 6.7 x 10 to the 8th is 870. Thus, all the blood in the world would fit into a cube 870 feet on a side. And here's where it gets cool, "Central Park in New York has an area of 840 acres. If a wall were built around it, ALL THE BLOOD IN THE WORLD would cover the park to a depth of something under 20 feet." Don't try using this "all the blood in the world" business in a poem, I've already done it...

10. Visions Of The Daughters Of Albion- William Blake/ edited by Robert N. Essick

When I moved back to SF Brandon Brown asked me what it was about Blake that I liked so much. I think I said something about Cosmology, Contrariness, Politics, Myth, I might have mentioned something about the illuminated plates. In other words, I had a really hard time articulating what I loved about Blake. I have a hard time talking about anything I really like though. I can go on and on about how silly hats look on girls, or about how much I hate "street art" but ask me why I love George Oppen and I'm suddenly tongue tied. I was thinking of getting a Daughters Of Albion tattoo for a while, but realized that the piece would probably turn out looking like a pastel colored smear more than anything else...

11. Broadway 2- ed. James Schuyler/ Charles North

I think I thought this was a rare item when I bought it from Green Apple back in 2001. I knew James Schuyler was a rare item, I knew that he only gave like 3 readings throughout his entire life, one of them being a late, odd Poetry Center solo reading (late 90s?). I remember feeling really uncomfortable while watching my dubbed VHS copy of that reading on my TV/VCR-in-one. Jimmy seemed a bit overwhelmed, walking to microphone, not acknowledging the audience at all, never looking up from the page, and then after concluding his reading, exiting as suddenly as he started. It was baffling, I didn't know what to think. And then later with more biographical context, it made a lot more sense.

12. Live Girls- Beth Nugent

I bought this in 1999 at a DVC Bookstore clearance sale, snagged this one and a book called Formosa Straights for a dollar each. This was a fairly terrible book and I have nothing else to say about it. Oh, well, I liked the yellow cover.

13. Rosemary Stretch- Betsy Fagin

"Betsy" is a pretty good name, in the key of "Ruth" or "Bernice," something very F. Scott Fitzgerald about it. Every time I see "Rosemary Stretch" I think of Rosemary Griggs. Did you know that Rosmarie Waldrop spells her name "Rosmarie"? Every time I type her name I pronounce it in my head like "Ross-Marie"...

14. Sulfur #4

I remember Clayton's wife Caryl combing his hair for him right before he was set to take the stage at a Poetry Center reading back in 2002 (?). It wasn't a reading actually, it was a slide-lecture about Ice Age cave art in Southwestern France. I feel like it was an evening event, it was dark outside. I started reading Eshleman in earnest this year after being blown away by the "6 Writers On Eshleman" section in Temblor #6. I would like my wife to comb my hair in the presence of strangers someday. I would like to see Ice Age cave art someday. I really hated Herzog's Cave Of Forgotten dreams.

15. Combo #7

Every time a new issue of Combo would appear in the bathroom Steve Orth would say "ANOTHER issue of Combo?!" And I'd say "yep..." Combo had some of the best covers in the game.

16. Meditations In An Emergency- Frank O'Hara

Hands down probably my favorite episode of Mad Men.

17. New Yipes Reader #4 edited by Rachel Levitsky/ Bill Luoma

I think Rachel was sick at this reading. I met Rachel at Naropa in 2005. I should say, Laura Jaramillo and I met Rachel at Naropa in 2005. For a while there I thought I was going to be the first boy published by Belladonna. I wrote a play with Laura that Summer. We gave it to Rachel hoping she would love it so much she would Belladonna the hell out of it. That didn't work out. Laura and I used to drink coffee on The Hill every day after class. The Streets were in town playing the Fox Theater. Laura and I were drinking coffee when Mike Skinner walked through the door. I said "ay, Mike Skinner...," he turned around and smiled at us. When I first got to Boulder I used to skateboard around town with a "small guy" of vodka in my backpack. I got so many bloody noses.

18. Laws- Jen Hofer

I hate oddly shaped books. I like book arts but hate oddly shaped books. I should say I hate oddly shaped books when it comes to my own library. I don't mind oddly shaped anything if I'm not the one having to figure out where to place it on a book shelf. Jen Hofer rides her bike in LA. It says so in all her bios.

19. Combo #8

Undoubtedly good cover.

20. Fourteen Hills Vol.9 #1

Blue and black MUNI transfer pass cover? And then there's that new lit mag called TRNSFR (or something like that), even though there already is a lit mag called Transfer (see Aesop Rock/ A$AP Rocky controversy). True story, for the longest time (oh, 2 months or so) I had no idea how to pronounce MSTRKRFT, I think in my head I was saying "Mister Cre-Foot"...and then Matthew Arnone started saying "OMG" and Brandon Brown started listening to tween pop music and saying "LOL" and Logan moved to Chicago to get away from it all, and Steve ORTH got married.

21. Amorgos- Nikos Gatsos/ translated by Sally Purcell

"On the stubble after harvest, and we ate the cut clover"...In 2008 Susan Gevirtz invited me to co-organize the Paros Translator's Symposium with her. Here are two photos (yes, self portraits, I was alone, so very very alone) pre-Symposium hiking around Amorgos with a makeshift turban/ marinating on my hotel balcony with a belly full of honey and yogurt. I was the youngest person on the island, I stayed for 5 days.

22. Signs Of Life In The USA: Readings On Popular Culture For Writers- ed. Sonia Maasik/ Jack Solomon

Taiwan used to be called Formosa, Portuguese for "Beautiful Island." When my brother was in Brazil he somehow ended up in white short shorts dancing wine-drunk with a celebrity talk show host nationally known for her healthy bottom in a nation especially known for healthy bottoms. Before the trip, on the way to SFO, the entire car singing along to Prince's "Seven"..."...with an intellect/ and a savoir faire..."...I want to say my brother and his friends trashed their rental car, I do know they had one tape cassette and hundreds of miles to drive through rugged Brazilian terrain. I'm not sure what the tape cassette has to do with the condition of their rental car.

24. Sulfur #5

I not sure if this was the Paul Blackburn issue. Isn't Jason Morris really into Paul Blackburn? Last Tuesday I drank a large Mocha at Farley's and read two books by Darrell Gray. Is it safe to say that Paul Blackburn has become a sort of Neglectorino? At least of late...? I think it's definitely safe to say that Darrell Gray has become a Neglectorino...Poltroon Press just put out a neat little book of Darrell Gray and G.P. Skratz collabos.

I met the guy who wrote the theme song to The O.C., he's a friend of Estee's. Estee is basically friends with Los Angeles.

27. Temblor #5

Hickman doesn't seem to know how to close out a journal. He'll cram an incredibly dense, unintelligible and meandering 6 page book review on John Ashbury into the last 10 pages of the magazine, I can't fathom how anybody would think this a good editorial move.

28. A City A Cloud- Elizabeth Workman

I don't remember this book. Was this the poster?

29. Combo #9

Did Combo only go 10 issues? In any case, I've only read the first 10 issues, so, one more.

30. The Sentinel- Arthor C. Clarke

I was really into the story where the aliens have colonized Earth, but no human has ever actually seen what they look like (they communicate telepathically, and through human envoys). At the end of the book, after much scheming to get a glimpse of them, our hero, before passing out, catches sight of the backside of an alien as it flees the room, all he can make out is what looks like a devil tail.

31. Loquela- Allyssa Wolf

It's Allyssa with 2 "l"'s...it's Mathew Timmons with one "t"...the first time I met Allyssa we shared a bottle of red wine outside of The Commons in SOMA. Allyssa is probably the most interesting poet in the Bay Area that nobody (at least Oakland coterie) talks about.

32. The Tower Of Babel- Jack Spicer

I read this in my car on my lunch break. I wish Spicer finished it...the kitchen scene with the drunk Zen monk taking the piss out of the overeager white intellectuals had me in stitches.

33. Fahrenheit 451- Ray Bradbury

I like how Bradbury presaged the iPod with the omnipresent "seashell" earbuds. Not so much the State did this to us as, look what we did to ourselves. Sometimes people stare at my cellphone with a bewildered look on their face, "how do you get by without a smart phone?"..."how do you know where you're going?!". I was talking with Anna Moschovakis about all this, not being on Facebook is not a heroic act, it's just, choosing not to pay attention to all of that anymore.

34. Night- Elie Wiesel

I read this at Heart & Dagger after an all day skate session at Lakeshore Elementary. It was overcast, I was drinking Trumer, I think I landed my first heel flip that day.

Fun bathroom book in a Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls early-70s kitschy charm/ picked up a copy for a nickel at the Goodwill on a lazy Sunday kind of way. And then suddenly in 2011 we have the History Channel's mostly ridiculous Ancient Astronauts program plus Ridley Scott inexplicably basing a lot of his Alien prequel'ish Prometheus on Von Daniken Ancient Astronaut theory. (Have you seen the Prometheus trailer? It's so so good, I get chills thinking about it, watch it HERE)

Actually, remember a couple posts back where I was being kind of snarky about oddly shaped books? I think this is actually the book I had in mind. Is this a Belladonna book? I think I remember the cover as being oppressively white. Isn't this the book with the beautiful typset rings running throughout the text? Or was that just on the cover. Marcella Durand is one of 4 or 5 people who wrote very popular poetry books within the last 5 years to have the word "Weather" in the title.

40. Selected Short Stories- D.H. Lawrence

Oh boy, is all of Lawrence like this? (kind of want to flip the script and call him D.H. (sometimes I forget how the phrase goes and say "flip the switch")) cause this shit was capital B B.o.r.i.n.g. I think every story ended in a wedding. I think someone's sister died in every story. I'd rather have a mosquito bite on top of a staph infection on my eardrum that read another D.H. story.

41. Combo #10

Currently listening to Aidan Couglan III drinking black tea with milk and honey. I'm sick again, I've been sick 6 times this late Fall/ winter season. My right tonsil looks like an ovary, I'm on meds. I spent over $100 yesterday on meds, oranges, soups, tea and honey and milk. I watched 4 episodes of Swamp People and a documentary on Pete Rose.

I met Will Yakulic at the Potrero skatepark a couple summer's ago. I was meeting up with Micah Ballard and P. Dunagan. Will was with his girlfriend, he was tall and skinny, he was wearing a too large baby blue mesh cap. I don't remember if he was visiting because he had a show in SF or it was just a social visit. Later on that night I went to a party at Cedar Sigo and Johnny Houston's house. I think that was the first time I met Julien Poirier. I was surprised at how easy it was to park in that part of the Mission.

43. Excess Space- Christina Fisher

Christina has a very fantastic energy. I couldn't remember her name for the longest time. I introduced her to my brother one night, I said "Hey James, have you guys met yet?" James knows that "have you guys met yet?" really means "introduce yourself and then ask her her name in front of me because I've forgotten it and I don't want to look like a dick by asking her her name again, we've been hanging out for too long at this point...". So James says "hey, I'm James...what's your name?" and Christina goes "I'm Christina...nice to meet you"...

44. The Violet Suitcase 1992-2004- Matt Gonzalez

I met a very pretty Portuguese girl at Spec's in North Beach. When I called her to set up a date she just kept saying "it's too hectic, so hectic...". I never saw her again.

Michael Koshkin gave me this back in 2005. He had a couple poems in it. Yes, I actually read the entire thing, and yes, it sucked.

48. Alternate Endings- Frances Jaffer

Human Universe I don't want
to paint a face on

a rock I speak to without
my face Little Sir

Echo

the other

side of the bay is
the same and not

it emanates
reflects

curses the paint

49. GirlVERT- Ashley Blue

I wrote this on AUG 19th, 2011. "Oriana Small (Ashley Blue) came into SPD today. it was great to meet her. she was with her husband Dave Naz. she told this great story about drawing a mustache on a dude's penis at Booksmith last night. and then she also autographed someone's butthole. i read her book GirlVERT in two days in my office a couple months ago. i played some early Rolling Stones while she signed a bunch of books. SPD can be weird sometimes."

50. Memoir 1960-1963- Tony Towle

I read this in one sitting. A very young Kathleen Fraser makes a cameo appearance. I'm not sure Tony had much to write about here, but it was fun nonetheless.

51. Memoir And Essay- Michael Gottlieb

Seems like all Language Poets work in the computer industry.

52. Jimmy And Rita- Kim Addonizio

I once wrote a semi-horrible serial poem about two SF junkies called Yellow.

53. 26 #C

I think they made it to E or G. I moved to Boulder around the same time as Elizabeth Robinson. I think I only slipped on the ice on Pearl S. 3 times in 2 years. I almost tore my ACL skateboarding home from The Catacombs after making out with a girl with a shaved head.

54. Hymns Of St. Bridget And Other Writings- Bill Berkson/ Frank O'Hara

I started dreaming of Frank O'Hara. And then I wrote this poem after Bill Berkson:

I want to say something about Sulfur #8 but I'm going to ask you a question instead? Have you read that poem Columbus Day by Brandon Brown? It was published in Mrs. Maybe #3. It is a seriously good poem. If I didn't leave my copy of Mrs. Maybe #3 at Heart And Dagger the other night I'd probably be reading that poem right now.

59. Homage To Frank O'Hara- ed. Bill Berkson/ Joe LeSueur

A fantastic book I bought at City Lights back in 2002. A sad book, almost like a funeral. I started dreaming about Frank O'Hara a lot while reading this book. I really wish there was an O'Hara documentary in the works, I wish James Franco would give some competent documentary director a lot of money to finance his Frank O'Hara pet project.

60. Cumulonimbus- Naropa Summer Writing Magazine 1996

Sometimes things are free, and I take them (e.g. 20 issues of Transfer), and I then I regret taking them, because now I have to read them. I read this.

61. 5 Works- The Rejection Group

The Rejection Group is Kent Johnson. 5 Works was published by David Hadbawnik. I republished many of these awesome poems in BOTH BOTH. Here is a video of Kent Johnson reading from that issue of BOTH BOTH.

62. Beauty Was The Case That They Gave Me- Mark Leidner

Mark ordered a cheeseburger, I ordered a Pliny The Elder. I told him and Amanda Nadelberg a story about my high school stalker. About how he showed up at my house one night, about how I thought he might have had a gun (he didn't), about how he accused me of spying on him, of working for nefarious-fill-in-the-blank organization, about how I was poisoning him, drugging him, turning people against him, about how I was monitoring him from the van parked on his block. I very carefully talked him down, tried to appeal to reason, I told him he had to leave, I then called his Dad and told him that his son was very sick.

63. House Of Leaves- Mark Z. Danielewski

I would read this every evening after boxing, I would have to stop once it got dark. Easily the most profoundly unsettling book I've ever read. House Of Leaves is about architecture, the DARK, hallways and Nothing. It's about how we inhabit our houses and how houses inhabit themselves. I made a mix tape called The Navidson Record, I don't reread books often but I know I'll be picking this back up sooner than later.

64. The Power Of Myth- Joseph Campbell/ Bill Moyers

Joseph Campbell is a beautiful man. Bill Moyers is a somewhat annoying interviewer. When Joseph Cambell emplores us to "follow your bliss!" I really feel like following the hell out of my fucking bliss. I just haven't found what my bliss is yet. Do you think most people feel like they know what their bliss is? Or are most of us cluelessly/ carelessly blissless. I don't enjoy reading myth very much (not even the Greek ones), but I could listen to Campbell talk about myth all day.

65. The Poems Of Gaius Valerius Catullus- Brandon Brown

Brandon Brown has written the book of the year, easily. I think Catullus is more like the book of the last few years, let's say 3. This book is so good I'm having a very hard time saying anything about it. You should read it, write about it, recommend it to your friends, pass it around, interview BB, invite him to your birthday party, to your East Bay BBQ, to your road trip to LA...you should invite Brandon Brown up to the Russian River over Memorial Day weekend, do you enjoy fishing and beer? Invite Brandon on your next fishing expedition, organize an orgy and have Brandon be the star, what's Brandon favorite ice cream, I think it's chocolate, you should buy him a pint. If you find yourself kicking it in Dolores Park with BB on one of those deliciously warm but rare San Francisco afternoons, offer to rub sun screen on his naked back.

66. Considering How Exaggerated Music Is- Leslie Scalapino

I read this at Molotov's before what turned out to be a bad date. I remember a line about cars then noticing the man next to me talking about cars. I remember reading a line about dogs and then noticing the women sitting to my left talking about dogs. I continued reading about dogs as one of Molotov's's resident filthy punk rock mutts hopped into my booth and laid its disgusting head on my lap.

67. American Rambler- Dale Smith

I remember when Brandon Brown had a poem accepted by Skanky Possum. I was insanely jealous. And then that poem never appeared. I was miffed. I think it was a Bigfoot poem.

I recently spent a lovely Saturday afternoon over at the 'Lectric house talking about collaboration wtih Kelsa, Sarah and Jilian and Tom Comitta. We drank white wine and watched Robert Smithson videos. We had pizza and talked about Christian Marclay's amazing Manga Scrolland Schwitters Ursonate, we finished the wine talking about ghosts, and Greeks, the disappearance of Ben Mirov, and how "we should grab a beer soon" really just means "Sincerely Yours,".

69. Robert Duncan In San Francisco- Michael Rumaker

This was a tawdry little book. Mostly though, this is not a book about Robert Duncan In San Francisco, but rather a book about Michael Rumaker walking around North Beach and the TL getting laid sometimes and sometimes not.

70. Whistle While You Dixie- Dodie Bellamy

This is a book put out by my friends Steve Orth and Lindsey Boldt on their Summer BF Press. There is a part in this book where Dodie talks about Georgia peaches. While reading about Georgia peaches I had the urge to make out with a girl in Santa Cruz. Not a specific girl, just the idea of a girl that was conjured by the idea of a Georgia peach. I'd like her lips to taste like Pacific Ocean salt, she'd be wearing short denim shorts and white Chuck Taylor's, her dark hair would be in a ponytail, it would be warm but foggy, sweatshirt and shorts weather. I'd like to have just finished eating a turkey on Dutch Crunch with extra mayo sandwich with original flavor SunChips on the side. I want to kiss this girl, bury my head in her sweatshirt and fall asleep on the beach.

71. Slough- Nicholas James Wittington

Nick just moved to Oakland. I think he lives on Grand Ave. With his dad, Nick runs Bird & Beckett Books in Glen Park, SF. Not even SF business owners can afford to live in SF anymore.

72. Falling Up- Shel Silverstein

I wouldn't recommend reading Shel Silverstein as an adult. I'm looking forward to reading these sometimes dark, sometimes charming, idiosyncratically musical poems to my children. Until then, I'll be keeping these safe and sound on the shelf. There is this new book called Hymns And Essays by Stuart Krimko, Ariana Reines says that it was inspired by the prosody of Shel Silverstein, Ariana didn't tell me that, but I think I read it somewhere. I've never met Ariana, I have three of her books but I haven't read them yet.

"exactly, and I was telling Kyle S. that what I really enjoy about MM is how readable it is, that page turner/ one sitting quality, it's like our very own "glossy," wouldn't be out of place in the dentist's office next to People or Newsweek (yes it would, but you get the point)...I'm on the bandwagon."

75. African American Voices The Life Cycle Of Slavery- ed. Steven Mintz

I bought this for $1 from a DVC Library sale back in 1999. An anthology of Slave Narratives, from black-African slave traders to the Nat Turner uprising/ massacre to Frederick Douglass and emancipation. I would read this in the morning before work.

76. Try # Jan 8, 2011

I heard recently that Try is no more. What a great run. I wonder if anybody has the entire set. I probably only have between 15 and 25 issues, if that, out of what, at least 80? Putting the VE! in fugitiVE!, if VE stood for Very Exciting!.

77. Composed On The Tongue- Allen Ginsberg

I had no idea that Ezra Pound renounced his war time antisemitism until reading his interview with Ginsberg collected in this book, calling his earlier views “stupid suburban anti-Semitic prejudice...," and then his writing in general “stupidity and ignorance all the way through...” I think I may have mentioned this before, I once brought The Cantos to Greece with me as my only book, I read around 300 pages before giving up and buying a couple very XXX dime-store (beach kiosk) erotica novels. I was enjoying The Cantos, just not as beach reading. I also read this Suspect Thoughts book that Brandon Brown brought called Nike, it took place in Athens, I remember someone getting set on fire at the end. I used to have this friend who would tell anyone who would listen that he'd read The Cantos at least 3 times all the way through, this was super embarrassing, it just wasn't true, and anyone could tell he was lying.The part where Allen Ginsberg sings Bob Dylan songs to a mute and possibly annoyed Ezra Pound had me cringing.

78. Luna #6

Getting through this was excruciating. I was reading it in my car and it was slow-death everyday, ruining my lunch break. I had to relegate it to the bathroom so I would be foreced to read it everyday on the toilet, I ended up finishing it 2 weeks later.

The Kenneth Rexroth interview is some epic shit, man. "Interview" is a misnomer though, Meltzer barely gets a word in, more accurately, it's a 50 page (at least) monologue hurled at David Meltzer. It's phenomenal, hilarious, sort of manic, masculine and incredibly smart. The Lew Welch interview was pretty great too, talk about manic...I read somewhere that the Welch interview took hour and hours, that they recorded deep into the night, that they were sitting in utter dark by the time the interview concluded, the parts about his mother were pretty disturbing and sad.

80. UFOs Generals, Pilots, And Government Officials Go On The Record- Leslie Kean

UFOs, or UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon) exist. There is no doubt (as this book painstakingly details), they are well documented by governments all over the world. France's COMETA Report, Britain's MoD investigations and recent release of Top Secret files to the National Archive, Brazil, Chile, Russia and on and on. Sadly, the USA is still covering up (for myriad hypothetical reasons as Kean lays out). UFO/ UAP doesn't mean alien, this is not a book about abductions, or space travel, or interdementional travel or whatever. This is a book about governmental and military persons going on the record about the fact that unidentified aerial phenomena (mostly in the form of physics defying disc shaped craft) exist and are well documented through photo, radar reports, military report testimony, video and audio recording. I was glad to see this book kind of blow up when it was released, Kean didn't approach her subject as a UFOologist bur rather the investigative reporter she was trained as. With this book Kean brought a ton of much needed credibility to the often mocked (but less so lately) subject.

81. Big Bell #4

I was hanging out with Stian and Dutchface and Ryan and his girlfriend who doesn't like me very much last Saturday. We got brunch, we went to The Gold Cane. I walked in and yelled "MORRIS!", and Jason Morris yelled back "SAKKIS!"...You see, Jason Morris, the editor of Big Bell magazine bartends at The Gold Cane (the only bar worth visiting in the Upper Haight), if you're ever in SF during baseball season and you feel like catching a game and a beer and chatting with some poets while you do it, The Gold Cane is yer spot. "Let's go GIANTS...oh man I re-read The Hotel Wentley Poems last night...", or "FUCK YEAH POSEY!...what's that line, 'The moon is God's big yellow eye remembering,' yo Morris can I get another Rolling Rock, um, oh shit, I love this song!, haha, whoa, Suicide Squeeze, don't see that much...when's the new Spicer book coming out, yeah, the 2nd one from Wesleyan, CHEERS!, don't know, haven't talked to KK about it for a while...scored a run!..."

I dreaded reading this book. I bought this book for $1 at a DVC library book sale back in 1999. Turned out I really enjoyed reading this book. I especially liked the part about the Polish.

83. Civil War Poetry An Anthology- ed. Paul Negri

I think I bought this from a long shuttered used bookstore in Concord. I think this used bookstore was located in the Park n' Shop strip mall close to downtown. I think I was with my friend Adam Venter that day. I feel like I might have also bought Sappho's Lyre edited by Diane Rayor. Afterwards Adam and I went for all-you-can-eat Indian food. I feel like that might have been the first time I'd ever tried naan bread. The last time I talked to Adam was while on a business trip in Denver. I was flipping thought a Dark Horse Comics catalog in my hotel parking lot sipping on my third coffee of the morning, something must have reminded me of Adam, I called Adam from the hotel parking lot in Denver. We made plans on getting together when I got back, watch a baseball game or soccer match, we never got together after I got back. I ended up spending part of my summer with Diane-Rayor-editor-of-Sappho's-Lyre in 2008 at the Paros Translator's Symposium. Strange how small things can get. If someone were to tell me, as I thumbed through Sappho's Lyre in that used bookstore in Concord, that 10 years from now, I'd be spending a summer in Greece with the editor of said book, it would have baffled my mind, it would have been impossible. Here is a topless photo of my Sappho tattoo, I'm curving my body that way because it makes me look leaner...

84. The Diamond As Big As The Ritz And Other Stories- F. Scott Fitzgerald

I'm currently reading Marabou Stork Nightmares by Irvine Welsh. Welsh is sort of the iconoclast of raver literature. Fitzgerald was sort of the iconoclast of jazz literature. I think Welsh is the Fitzgerald of his time.

85. Remembered Men- Shane Allison

Like Rob Lowe's character from Parks And Recreation, I "literally" have no recollection of reading this book. Sorry Shane.

86. Doublouns- Micah Ballard/ Sunnylyn Thibodeaux

Not sure if this is a prenatal collabo, or post-prego mashup (sup Lorca!). Is this a Lew Gallery or an August Press edition? Micah Benzo and Sunnylyn THBX had a kid and disappeared. I don't hate em' for it though.

87. Breaststa- Anne Vitale

One of the skate rat ramp jammer characters from the Skate Or Die video game (NES) would quip "MONDO BUMMER DUUUDE!" every time you bailed on the halfpipe. Skate Or Die/ Skate Or Die/ DIE DIE DIE DIE! I almost just said, "the first time I met Amy Berkowitz was at a BBQ at Brandon Brown's house...". But that's not true at all, the first time I met Amy Berkowitz was the summer of 2010 during her couple month long warehouse internship at SPD. I taught her how to properly pack a box of books, she taught me about Power Pop. I taught her the meaning of the word "dunnage" she showed me how easy it was to request songs from KALX. Back to that BBQ over at Brandon Brown's house, that was actually the first time I met Evan Kennedy. That's what I meant, EVAN KENNEDY.

88. A Toast In The House Of Friends- Akilah Oliver

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXXOXOXX

89. That We Come To A Consensus- Noah Eli Gordon/ Sara Veglahn

I think Noah gave this to me outside of The Catacombs bar in Boulder, CO. We had just read together at some coffee shop off the Pearl St. Mall. I feel like Hot Whiskey Press put this reading on? Is that true? I know that Hot Whiskey made these awesome letterpress broadside posters where all the letters were actually animals posing like letters, e.g. a monkey touching its toes for an "O." I know that my Mom framed one of those posters and gave it to me for Christmas 2006. I read for too long at that reading, something I don't think I ever do nowadays. 15-20min at most. Punk rock/ Pop/ Party poet sets, exit stage pursued by Leatherface. I was drinking vodka tonics that night, I think Noah was drinking beer. Noah lived in Denver, I lived in Boulder. I think I only made it to Denver twice while living in Colorado. I remember thinking that Denver was an exceptionally disappointing city. Though really, I was going through an obnoxious "San Francisco is better than anywhere..." stage, so Denver never had a shot.